Stop fighting, its just a game

This post will be a bit more light hearted in the sense that it will discuss transboundary water resources in relation to one of my favourite things; Football.

The Nile Basin tournament, hosted in Egypt took place in January 2011 and was contested by 7 teams. These teams included Egypt, Burundi, DR Congo, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, whilst three other teams Eritrea, Ethiopia and Rwanda withdrew before the tournament kicked off. The tournament was proposed by the Egytptian Football Association, after an agreement could not be made to establish a football association of the Nile countries.

The eventual winners of the Tournament was Egpyt who beat Uganda 3-1 in the final. It seems Egypt dominates the other Nile basin countries on and off the field. In 2011 it was decided that the tournament  would be an annual event, Egypt even  promising to help financially support any other countries that were willing to host the tournament. However, I could not find any evidence of the tournament taking place after the inaugural 2011 tournament.

Entertaining football, however, was not the only goal of the tournament. Ministers of irrigation and foreign affairs and chairmen of the football federations from each of the participating countries were invited to the tournament to meet with their Egyptian counterparts for discussions relating to water security.

In my opinion,  football and other sports could be a way to promote solidarity between countries, similar to the way the Olympics promotes a sense of togetherness across the world stage.  However the fact that one country (Egypt) had such a big part to play in the tournament, especially given its role in the trandboundary conflict, may suggest an ulterior motive from Egypt.

In the long run maybe the tournament didn't achieve much, in terms of improving water sharing in the region, but did highlight that in fact the countries of the Nile basin can in actual fact be cooperative.

Til next time

http://www.goal.com/en/news/89/africa/2011/01/06/2292842/nile-basin-tournament-to-be-an-annual-event

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Nile_Basin_Tournament#Final